DESCRIPTION (adapted from the application) The major goal of the Clinical Nutrition Research Unit (CNRU) at the University of Washington is to promote and enhance interdisciplinary nutrition research by bringing together basic science and clinical investigators on a cooperative basis. Because of the multidisciplinary nature of nutrition, close interaction across disciplines and optimal use of resources is necessary to better understand the relationships among diet, health and disease states. By providing a number of Core facilities, the CNRU integrates and coordinates health and disease states. By providing a number of Core facilities, the CNRU integrates and coordinates research activities in the field of nutrition and attempts to foster new interdisciplinary research collaboration, stimulate new research activities, improve nutrition education at multiple levels and facilitate the nutritional management of patients. The five Cores are: 1) a Laboratory Core to provide affiliate investigators with cost-efficient state-of-the-art nutritional assays and to help with new methods development; 2) a Clinical Research Core to provide facilities and help for investigators with their clinical research, and to provide a patient registry, behavioral psychologist, and biostatistical unit; 3) a Body Composition and Energy Expenditure Core to provide facilities for measuring body composition and energy expenditure; 4) a Nutrient-Gene Core to provide genetically-defined mouse models for use in studies of nutrient-gene interactions; and 5) an Administrative and Enrichment Core that is responsible for the day-to-day administration of the CNRU. This Core also arranges a series of seminars, retreats, and Visiting Professorships, and administers the Pilot and Feasibility and New Investigator Programs that are aimed at stimulating nutrition research by junior investigators and by more established investigators new to the field of nutrition in response to evolving research interests at the University of Washington. Thus, the CNRU provides facilities and support for the large and varied nutrition research base of the University in 6 major areas (lipids and atherosclerosis, diabetes, body weight regulation and obesity cancer, women?s health, and aging), thereby stimulating not only research, but also educational and clinical activities in the area of nutrition.